Before you embark on reading Bud Not Buddy with your class, have them imagine they are in Bud's shoes. They must prioritize which of 13 items listed on a printable worksheet they would take with them to survive as a Depression-Era...

Here's an alternative to a traditional book report for your class to demonstrate that they understand and can articulate the main character's evolution and the social themes presented in Voltaire's satirical novel Candide. Your young...

Reinforce the actions, emotions, and characteristics that determine what a character is like by having your middle schoolers create a biopoem using the model presented here. You could engage them first by having them write a poem about...

Get your class talking, even debating, about Gary Paulsen's popular novel Canyons. As they finish chapters 10-12, they complete the following discussion web concerning Brennan and the skull. They fill out the graphic organizer provided...

Why is visual literacy so important in understanding Maus? Introduce your class to basic elements of graphic novels with a game of pictionary. A list of 13 words are included, but you could potentially add some World War II-related...

The definitions for unfamiliar words drawn from Art Spiegelman graphic novel memoir, Maus, provide the clues for a vocabulary bingo game. 

If you are looking for how to introduce elementary environmentalists to the process of composting, here is a comprehensive outline for making it happen. The plan is to set this up at the beginning of a school year in order to observe the...

Your pupils are beginning their research project and are having a hard time narrowing their topics down. If you’re not sure how to help them, then start here. Provided is a student dialogue that works though the issues of narrowing a...

Jamie Ford’s historical novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, explores the relationship between a young Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl set against the backdrop of Seattle during World War II. The teaching...

What would happen if I structured this review by beginning in the middle of it? Or by flashing back to the dinner I had last night that gave me bad heartburn, and then transitioned into how the lingering burn of acid seeped into my...

A graph not only tells us who won the bike race, but also what happened during the race. Use this resource to help learners understand graphs. The commentary suggests waiting until the end of the year to introduce this topic, but why...

If you are interested, you could try out this lesson on auxiliary verbs. Class members get the chance to discuss the difference between can and could in-depth before viewing a presentation that breaks down several auxiliary verbs. After...

The world is a very different place to those who are blind. That is why it is so important to have your kids with visual impairments explore the world in many different ways. For this activity, a bean bag is placed on the child's head,...

Try out this list to get your class started with the vocabulary present in Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. The list is made up of 20 words from the book, each paired with a definition, page number, and corresponding sentence from the book. The...

Teaching documentary in your class? Inform your instruction with a guide meant to support teachers as they begin with documentary. The resource includes information on what a documentary is as well as documentary modes, elements, and...

Spruce up a class reading of the children's book Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback with this fun series of activities. Starting with a list of reading comprehension questions and key vocabulary to address during a teacher...

High schoolers will love this geometrically exact ceramics project; they create a personalized clay box using the slab method and mathematical measurements. They utilize scoring and square construction and can decorate the boxes to...

It's just a figure of speech, but this app is, in a nutshell, bursting at the seams with idioms. In just two shakes of a lamb's tail, learners can study, search for, and test their knowledge of the included expressions.

How well do your kids know key terms from Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori? Have them review a list of words that they will encounter in the novel, and mark which words they know well, which words they've seen before, and which...

Students examine reasons for and against American baseball teams playing in international exhibition games by debating pros and cons of the issue from the perspectives of designated personas.

Third graders create a graphic organizer. They draw illustrations that show the beginning, middle and end of a trip they took to visit a friend or a relative. They write age-appropriate text to accompany each drawing. They tell...

Students explore a variety of age-appropriate resources. They answer a teacher-selected question about a science or social studies topic. They locate and review age-appropriate resources and provide practice in using the resources...

Fourth graders examine social changes in Texas during last half of ninteenth century relating to the institution of slavery. They brainstorm methods that unhappy slaves may have used to avoid obeying their masters, and read and discuss...

Fourth graders reserach the state of Missouri. In this Missouri History lesson, 4th graders plan a vacation to a region of Missouri. Students work in collaborative groups to determine all aspects of the trip. Students use math...